Angst, if any, should be sad/bittersweet/twisted rather than elicit a sigh of "Oh, this again?"

Before you suggest using the "forbidden love" tag and search, I'd just like to mention that I have. I've also used the tags "unrequited love", "incest", and a few other ones. The only thing I don't like about the search feature is that you can't exclude tags (or can you?).

Please recommend ones where the ending isn't too happy. I know I've included some with happy endings, but that's to show that I've read them.

Painful/twisted/forbidden can be any of the following:

The two leads can't be together because their love is forbiddenThe romance is twisted (up to your interpretation)Unrequited love/or no happy ending in sightThe two leads will never see each other again, etc.

I usually find this kind of plot in incest manga, so I've probably read almost all the scanlated ones. Or it's when a character is deathly ill and falls in love with someone else. Then the person reads some sort of letter about his/her feelings and cries. Or FwB where one person sleeps with the other but likes another person - unrequited love where the lovelorn chooses to stay in the end. But feel free to mention ones that aren't in my list below.

Requirements:

Must not be:HentaiYaoi/Shounen-ai/Shoujo-ai/YuriEcchiMechaLoli

Some examples:

First story of Daremo Ienai (Shigisawa Kaya) - close example of what I wantFlowers of EvilOujitachi wa Izonsuru (please don't suggest any other works of this mangaka - I've read them all- the scanlated ones, at any rate. I would recommend her to anyone else interested in this type of manga, though!) - close example of what I wantOnna KyoushiBlanc Marie (already read other scanlations by this mangaka)Masca (less this, but it's still okay)Kanon (the one about the violin player) - already read other manga from this mangaka, like Basilis no Musume - bit too overdramaticTsumi ni Nureta Futari (read all other manga by this mangaka - yes, I know this was chock full of pointless angst; this is just to note that I've read it)Mitsu no Yoru (read all other manga by this mangaka - this one was odd because her plots are usually happier)Kago no Naka (The atmosphere at the end: "As long as I have your love, I can live on/I am the caged bird that sings only for you" --- stories with that kind of ending) - Read everything by this mangaka (scanlated)Eden no Hana (I know this had a happy ending, but it was good).Zettai Kareshi (Okay, it was a bit ridiculous and I wanted to slap the heroine, but Night was cool)DokuhimeMon Seul (read everything by the mangaka)Lovesick (yes, I know it had a happy ending...just wanted to mention it in case anyone was going to bring it up)

Weird ones that didn't appeal to me:Demon OroronAngel SanctuaryKoi KazeHotarubi no Mori E A Night of a Thousand Dreams (a bit too confusing...I don't care what conclusions you draw about my intelligence)Hitsuji no UtaAngel Sancturary (just got too confusing later on to keep up with)Mars

Edit: NTR fits as long as the male/female lead isn't too pathetic.Edit: Mitsuji no Aji ~ A Taste of Honey : Already watched this, but thanks for the suggestion. It disappointed me lots - I was so excited for it, too... Too much pointless/overblown angst.Edit: Watashitachi no Shiawase na Jikan was really sad... thanks for a good cry Edit: The infamous School Days. Lol! Edit: Hitsuji wa chiisai yume wo miru - Already read - didn't really get the feeling of twisted from it.Edit: I've also already read: Hana no Namae

Aside from that, if you want to try a drama, Mitsu no Aji ~A Taste of Honey might suit what you're looking for. I didn't like it that much (due to personal reasons), but it is definitely a forbidden/bittersweet/painful love story.

Edit: I'm looking through some series under the tragedy genre, Princess and Replay might be good recs too.

Cynical Orange perhaps? Read this a long time ago. Remember it starting out light and getting all messed up in later volumes.100% perfect girl was a rollercoaster with all the crap happening, one right after another. Was hard for me to read lol. Definitely a lot of angst.

Thanks for the suggestion; I've already read akuma no love song (forgot to mention), and it doesn't seem like real angst to me - only the drama of high school. Even though it was cool in the beginning, after her memories returned, it was meh.

To Ruri12 and Wshin it's really easy to link mangas from MU to a thread it's [m]Manga name[ /m] (take out the space in the /m bracket. There's even a button on top you can press to make linking mangas faster.)

Wshin - yes you can exclude tags in searches instead of putting incest you would type -incest to exclude the tag.

________________Yes yes, I know I make longwinded comments, but that's just me >.<I should proof read my comments more, but I won't...So keep in mind I'm filled with typos